EDWARDSVILLE - Kim and Phil Schoenfeld are easy to spot walking around Edwardsville. The couple can be found daily out and about with their dog, Caddy, a labrador puppy in tow.

But Caddy is no ordinary dog. In fact, Caddy doesn't belong to the Schoenfelds.

The Schoenfelds are puppy raisers, volunteers with Duo Dogs of St. Louis, and they are training Caddy to be a support dog.

The Schoenfelds received Caddy back in late January and as volunteer puppy raisers have been training Caddy in basic obedience but also exposing him to the world around him as well as preparing him to be paired with a future client. "Anyone can be a puppy raiser. They gave us a big pamphlet to read, and then we go to obedience classes every two weeks," Kim explained. "This week we're working on stay, leave it and drop it. Like if he picks up something out of the yard, I'm supposed to say drop it and he's supposed to drop it, which he doesn't always do."

The Schoenfelds expect to have Caddy for about 14 to 16 months before returning him to Duo Dogs where Caddy will undergo more intense training by professional dog trainers to become a support dog. "They will expect a lot more out of him than we do," Kim noted.

"We let him be a puppy somewhat because he's still young so he's still got to be a puppy," Phil said.

"And they tell us do that," Kim added. "They tell us not to teach him too much too quick because we want them to have a chance to be a puppy."

As a support dog, Caddy will be trained in one of a variety of ways to provide assistance to individuals with disabilities. This could involve being a service dog helping those with mobility-related tasks, a hearing dog to help alert his owner to sounds in the environment, a facility dog that works with at-risk populations, a courthouse facility dog who works with abused children and adults, a touch dog to help those who would benefit from a dog visit or a reading dog who are placed in classroom or library settings to assist children with reading.

The Schoenfelds decided to volunteer to be a puppy raiser for Duo Dogs because a friend of Kim's, Debbie, had trained service dogs in the past. "She is on her third time of getting a support dog. And whenever I told her we were thinking about it, she said, 'Oh Kim, let's get one together.'" Kim said. "She has Caddy's brother. His name is Sal. There were 10 in the litter. They came from Oklahoma. They brought six of them here to St. Louis to be support dogs through Duo Dogs."

But they had another reason to volunteer. Phil is legally blind from a degenerative eye disease that results in loss of vision. "We had thought about getting a guide dog for my husband.," Kim explained. "He has Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP). It's like tunnel vision. He can only see like he's looking through a straw."

Kim further explained that Phil didn't find out he had RP until he was about 30. "He hasn't driven since he was like 31," she pointed out. "When we got married 11 years ago, he had probably about 10 degrees of vision, where you and I have 180 degree vision. He had about 10, but now I think it's down to less than five probably. So he's always bumping into light poles and bumping into people."

"RP is probably one of the hardest eye conditions to understand because I see in front of me almost as well as you can," Phil added. "I have like 20/30 vision, and I can probably see as far as you can. So I can see something two blocks away and say, 'Hey Kim, we need to go right there,' and then walk into the person that's smack dab right next to me. Anything right around me is hard."

Phil uses a mobility cane to help him navigate walking, but RP doesn't stop him from walking – a lot. Phil walks at least seven miles a day which includes walking from his home to the bus station in Edwardsville to ride the bus to work everyday.

It was Phil's continuing loss of vision that had him thinking about getting a guide dog which was another reason to be a puppy raiser. "We said, well, let's get a support dog and train him, and then we'll be able to kind of get a feeling for whether Phil should get a guide dog," Kim noted.

Being a puppy raiser has entailed attending the mandatory training classes every other week, practicing the homework assignments, keeping notes on Caddy's training results and daily taking Caddy out into the public. "Caddy goes to work with Phil about two days a week and I have him the other three, Whenever Phil takes him on the bus, we write down that he went on the bus and how he did. Like I took him to Sam's today and he did really good. I was even pushing the cart and he was walking next to me with the cart next to him and he did really good," Kim said.

The Schoenfelds have enjoyed being puppy raisers thus far, but they've also been surprised by one thing. "I thought, 'Oh this is going to be so easy and so fun and everybody will get to talk to us about being a puppy raiser,' but it's not quite that way because we have to be so careful that people don't run up and pet him," Kim said.

Support dogs aren't like ordinary pets. They are actually working dogs and therefore shouldn't be approached. Kim said that a lot of people will recognize Caddy's service dog vest and not approach him, but others do, what Phil humorously calls a "drive by." "Where they run up and pet him without asking," Kim said.

"Or petting him as they are asking," Phil noted. "It's tough. You feel bad."

"It's hard because we feel really mean," Kim said.

"That's part of why we have to educate people," Phil said. "And it's not only touching. You can't really talk to them much because it distracts him. If he's working with someone with balance issues, it could be life threatening if somebody starts to distract him...and he wags his tale and wants to go get petted and he pulls on them and takes the person right over with him."

"I think that's the hardest part for me anyway," Kim said.

"Oh me too," Phil added. "Taking him on the bus and people are whistling or calling him. You have to learn to be a little...."

"Aloof....I'm kind of a happy go lucky person, and I love to talk to people," Kim added. "I'm an Air Force brat, and so I always had to meet people fast and I had to make friends and then I had to move on and that has stayed with me my whole life. I find myself walking down the street and, of course, I'm supposed to be putting all my attention on him, but if I see someone and they say, 'Oh he's so cute.' I say, 'Oh thanks.' I'm kind of like stuck up I feel like."

"You hate to do it, but what do you do because you're doing it for the dog," Phil said. "I don't know. It's a tough position to be in really. It's harder than we thought. Especially with kids."

Kim felt like they had come a long way with helping to educate people and part of that educational process includes handing out an informational flyer to those who approach them. "I tell people that you can't pet him, but I'll give you the consolation prize. You can read about him," she said.

"I think it helps. It was Kim's idea, and it's a really nice letter," Phil noted.

"It kind of helps me feel better too," she said.

The Schoenfelds have obviously become quite attached to Caddy, which makes one wonder how difficult it will be to give Caddy back to Duo Dogs. "Yeah, we're getting attached to him. He's a great dog," Phil said. "People kept saying , 'How are you going to give him away?' I hate to say it, but I was almost like getting annoyed. We're doing it for the right reasons. This is such a good thing we're doing. We're going to give this dog to someone who needs it, and it's going to help their lives."

"I was thinking all these things, but then after we had him for about a month or two I was like how are we going to give him away? Kim and I are like plotting about what island we can run away to," Phil said with a chuckle.

Duo Dogs, formerly called Support Dogs, Inc., was created by Sandy Maze, a Midwestern woman with muscular dystrophy who had the idea to train her German shepherd to assist her. A group of St. Louisans saw Sandy and her dog, Stormy, at a presentation in 1981 and opened a chapter in St. Louis. The national headquarters moved to St. Louis after merging with another like organization in 1985. Learn more about Duo Dogs, becoming a puppy raiser for them or the many other ways to volunteer at Duo Dogs by visiting www.DuoDogs.org.